


The Better Part

by Lapin



Series: Shakespeare in Love [2]
Category: The Magnificent Seven (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Boys Are Dumb and In Love, M/M, grad school
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2019-12-05
Packaged: 2021-02-24 17:02:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21681406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lapin/pseuds/Lapin
Summary: Grad school is what it is, and Red's getting through it just fine.There is of course, the little matter of that thing he's not telling Josh, and that's that he might be a little in love with Emma Cullen's sidekick.
Relationships: Red Harvest/Teddy Q
Series: Shakespeare in Love [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1562965
Comments: 6
Kudos: 69





	The Better Part

**Author's Note:**

> So who needed a little bit of just what was going on with Red and Teddy Q before Josh had his little hissy fit and realized he was in love with Vas?
> 
> No one?
> 
> Okay who hasn't slept in a day or so and decided to write an entire mini-fic explaining it anyway? Ooh, me!

“Who are these people?”

Teddy takes his phone back from Red, shrugging a little. “To be honest, I don’t know most of them anymore. The whole thing started back at my old school, and it was just the rest of the department at first. And then…” He blacks the screen and plugs it into its charger. “I don’t know. It just kind of exploded from there.” 

Red doesn’t really get social media. He doesn’t give a shit what other people are doing unless it affects him in some way, and that kind of limits that to whatever the fuck Josh has done lately. Possibly Vas. 

“It’s fun though, at least for now.” He shrugs. “You really don’t have anything? Not even a Facebook?”

“Didn’t have Internet when I was a kid.” He’d been able to use it at school, sometimes, but they hadn’t gotten it at home until they left the reservation, and even then, they were stuck with dial-up. There’s also the part where he can only tolerate a select group of people in real life. 

“We had it, but I wasn’t allowed to use it. My dad was convinced I’d get kidnapped by a pedophile.” That gets Red to grin. His parents had never gone through that phase. They’d needed Red to do everything with the computer right from the start. So had Faraday’s mom. So him and Josh had always been able to do whatever the fuck they wanted when they could get on one. “But after a couple of years, I came out, sort of, and then he convinced himself I was either going to end up some strung-out club kid, or commit suicide.”

That kind of gets Red to stare, but he can’t see either of those things. Teddy’s too nice for either of those images. “Why?”

“You remember I told you they were kind of hippies?” He remembers that, so he nods. “My mom is the annoying Earth Mother kind. My dad, on the other hand, is the conspiracy-believing, paranoid kind. I’m just thankful he doesn’t believe in chemtrails.” He sighs, and pushes his hair back behind his ears. It’s still wet. He’d just gotten out of the shower when Red showed up. 

Red can smell his conditioner, even. It’s a stupid thing to notice, and it’s even dumber that he wants to notice it, but he does. He just really likes it. 

“ _And_ that I ended up boring enough he could move on from me before I went to college,” Teddy continues. 

“You’re not.” Red didn’t mean to say that; it’s becoming a problem around Teddy. Talking when he doesn’t mean to. 

Teddy laughs. “I kind of am. I was in the National Honors Society, I tutored, I did 4H, and I was on the school newspaper. Well, I was before Emma got us kicked off.” Red raises his eyebrows, asking. “It’s a long story.”

This is usually the part where Red would just take someone at their word, mostly because he didn’t care. But he does care now, and Teddy might say he’s boring, but every story he tells is evidence to the contrary. So this time, he looks around Teddy’s bedroom, then back at Teddy. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Alright,” Teddy says, still kind of laughing. “Um, so see, the original administrator was kind of...well, I don’t like to throw stones, but she was an alcoholic. She was always just this side of tipsy during our meetings at least. She hid straight vodka in her water bottles. But she was a nice drunk, and she always let us do whatever we wanted. Unfortunately, she didn’t come back for senior year. Pretty sure she got busted and sent to rehab. That’s usually what ‘leave of absence for personal reasons’ meant in our neck of the woods.” He explains when Red keeps looking at him. “Small town. Big oxy problem.”

Yeah, Red knows that story, but in their town, everyone just kind of ignored it. The random meth lab explosions were a bigger problem. 

“Anyway, we had to have a new advisor, and it ended up being one of the English teachers. Mrs. Adams. And she was a small-town Christian.” At that, Red rolls his eyes. “Yeah, pretty much exactly what you’re thinking. That didn’t sit well with Emma, or me, if I’m going to be honest. She made us pray before every meeting.”

Red frowns. “I thought you were Jewish.”

“Yeah, that was kind of her point.” His tone goes flat; Teddy does that whenever he has to talk about something that pisses him off. “It being senior year, and having had to deal with that nonsense my whole life, I was willing to go along to get along, at first. Prayer ain’t so bad. I can usually ignore it. But she just kept pushing.”

It doesn’t really need a comment from Red. He still says, “Yeah. Been there.” It wasn’t the same thing, but Red had had more than one teacher that had felt the need to talk shit about his heritage and culture. Hell, his name had been a point of contention more than once.

“I bet,” Teddy says. “People are assholes like that. But she finally pushed too far. See, the school board had voted to give us Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur off. There weren’t a lot of us around, but there were enough, and honestly, it had more to do with budget issues than any actual altruism. Emma wanted to do a piece about what they were, because kids at school were asking. Didn’t even have an angle, was just informative.” 

“She didn’t like that?” 

Teddy smiles, but it’s grim. “She had a lot to say about why she didn’t like it. Nothing I haven’t heard before, but it’s different coming from a teacher. It’s not fun hearing it any other time, but most people are polite enough not to bring the Holocaust into it.” 

That sounds familiar. “Been there, too.”

“Again, I bet. But see, that was too far even for me.” He pushes his hair back, and shrugs. “And Emma is a bit much sometimes, I know. But she’s always had my back. She doesn’t put up with anything, and the only reason she hadn’t torn Mrs. Adams a new one was because I had told her to let it go. I wasn’t looking to let it go anymore.” 

“What’d you do?” 

“Emma wrote a whole piece about how the school was only paying lip service, while still allowing an antisemitic environment to flourish,” Teddy says. “She named names. And I helped. We published it behind Mrs. Adams’ back, and made sure it got distributed all over the school, and in the local paper.” 

That’s impressive, but honestly, at this point in knowing Teddy, he’s not surprised. It takes a lot to piss him off, but when he is, he seems to go big. “You got kicked off for that?”

“Oh, we nearly got expelled. Principal called it bullying, and slander. Only it ain’t slander if it’s true, and when Mrs. Adams wrote her own piece for that same local paper about how she was being targeted for her beliefs, she put down all those beliefs in writing. And since our parents are lawyers...” Red’s laughing, and it gets Teddy to laugh too. “My mom felt the need to point out that the word he was looking for was ‘libel’, anyway. Slander is when you say it, libel is when you write it. And it still wasn’t, because it was true, and we could prove it.” 

He’s still kind of laughing, even if he looks a little abashed. 

Red sits up. “You’re not boring.” It bears repeating. He’s not. Not to Red, at least.

“Yes, I am. Because after we got kicked off, what I was really mad about? I was trying to letter in journalism, and I’d wasted three years.”

“You can letter in journalism?”

“You could at our school.” He looks back down at his notebook, writing down something from the notes Red had brought him. “Did you letter in anything?”

“They don’t let juvenile delinquents on teams,” Red points out. He’s not ashamed of the shit he’d done in high school, but he’s not exactly proud of it right now. 

Teddy frowns. Yeah, that’s what Red was trying to avoid. “You’ve been arrested?”

“Couple of times.” He doesn’t usually care if people know; he was a minor, and it was awhile ago. This is different though. Teddy doesn’t know much about Red’s past, and Red’s been kind of trying to keep it that way. But he doesn’t like lying, and he doesn’t want to lie to Teddy anyway. “Nothing ever stuck.” He doesn’t say he didn’t do the things he was accused of. He’d never been formally charged, but he definitely had done pretty much all of it.

“Can I ask what for?”

“Stupid shit.” He doesn’t owe Teddy an explanation, probably wouldn’t have given one if Teddy demanded it. He never does though; he doesn’t ask Red for anything personal if Red doesn’t volunteer it. “Josh and me didn’t fit in. We…” He shrugs, for lack of anything else to do. “We were angry kids. And bored. We did dumb shit, sometimes we got caught.” 

Teddy taps the notebook with his pen, then says, “My mom has her first mug shot framed. It’s up on the wall with the rest of the family pictures.” 

That takes the tension right out of Red. “Your mom’s been arrested?”

“Did I forget to say my mom is a civil rights lawyer?” He did, and Red nods. “Oh, yeah. She is. I did say she’s kind of a hippie. Her first time getting arrested was because she allegedly attacked a police officer during a sit-in. Way she tells it, the cop started it by grabbing another protester and hitting them. So, my mom defended her, and she got charged with police brutality. Of course, my grandfather was _also_ a lawyer, so her charges never stuck either.” 

He might be wrong, but he thinks maybe this is Teddy telling him it’s okay. So Red decides to explain some of it, just a little. “High school mascot was the Indians. Used to piss me off.” This isn’t a story he’s ever told, but he kind of wants to now. “Josh knew that. Senior year, someone broke into the school, wrecked the mural. And the costume. And the locker rooms. The football team used to try and fuck with me, would write shit on my locker.” He smirks. It’s a good, vicious memory. “Hard to play when your gear is trashed.” 

Now, Teddy’s smiling down at the notebook. “And for some reason, they thought maybe the Native kid and his friend had something to do with it?” 

“We were working on my grandpa’s construction site. Had time cards. Eyewitnesses swore we were there.” His grandfather had not been happy about that, had told Red and Josh both that it hadn’t been worth it, but he hadn’t been the one who had to go to that fucking school every day and see that shit. He’d still covered for them, but he’d made them both work all summer.

Still worth it, at least to Red. Team hadn’t been able to play in the district championships. 

“Of course,” Teddy says, then passes the notebook over to Red. “Is this right?”

It’s part of Red’s family tree, what he can remember at least. There’s a lot more in the notes from his parents and his grandparents, but Teddy’s been carefully sorting through it. “Think so.” 

“When are you going to tell your parents what all this is for?” 

“When it’s done,” he says. “If it works.”

“It’ll work,” Teddy reassures him. “I’m not good for much, but I know what I’m doing here. You’re sure your family won’t mind, having all their medical stuff in this?” 

“It won’t be public,” Red says.

“That wasn’t my point,” Teddy says. “People get funny about this kind of thing, sometimes, is all.” 

“We don’t have things like this,” Red explains, like he did before, but goes into it a little more. “And we get scattered. People don’t know who they’re related to, don’t know anything about their own families.” 

“I know, I know, you don’t have to tell me,” Teddy says. “I think it’s a really great idea, still. Just don’t want to overstep. I’m not Native, and I don’t want anyone to think I’m getting in their private business.” 

That’s a good point, but Red had made sure everyone he had gotten a hold of knew what the information was for. Knew that they could trust who had it. Red trusts Teddy. But he’s not ready to say that, not right this second. “People only told me what they were comfortable sharing.” He spots a word written down he’d meant to ask about, and changes the subject. “What’s this?” 

“Heterochromia? It means a difference in coloration; in this case, iridum heterochromia. Means the eyes.” He taps his pen by his own eyes to demonstrate. “Lots of stuff can cause it, but it looks like your grandmother on your father’s side, and her two daughters, your aunts, have it, so it’s genetic in this case. It’s harmless.”

Red thinks about it. “Their eyes are weird.” He’s always thought so. All of them have brown in the center of their eyes, but the outer part is green. 

When he says this out loud, Teddy says, “It’s called ‘cat’s eye’. It’s not exactly common, but it’s not crazy-rare either. Just an interesting thing for someone to know if they’re looking for information about their family.”

“If it’s genetic, why don’t I have it?” 

“That’s not how it works,” Teddy says, shaking his head. “It’s kind of rare that she even had two children with it. But it might pop up again in one of her other grandchildren, or her great-grandchildren. Or it might never come up again.” He catches the face Red is making. “Genetics aren’t like computer programming. Just because the information is there, doesn’t mean it’ll ever do anything.” 

“That happens in programming.”

“Isn’t that usually a sign of bad programming?” He has a point there. “Biggest and best argument you’ll ever find against that whole ‘intelligent design’ nonsense is genetics. There was nothing intelligent involved in them. You would not believe how much junk you have floating around in you, not doing anything.”

“Like X-Men.” He kind of says it just to annoy Teddy.

“No, not like X-Men. And don’t think I don’t know that you know that’s wrong.” He does, but he likes winding Teddy up when he can. It’s hard to do; not a lot bothers him. Proof being that he doesn’t seem to mind Red in the slightest. He knows he can be an asshole, but Teddy likes him anyway. “You start pulling that shit Matthew likes to try, we’re going to have a problem.” 

Yeah, Red doesn’t buy that. “You gonna cut me off?”

“I might.” 

Red doesn’t buy that either. But it does bring the conversation around to something he’s been wanting to talk about, as much as he ever wants to talk about anything. 

This hadn’t really started the way things were supposed to start, from what Red understood. Well, what TV told him, at least. He knew Teddy existed before; he was Emma’s sidekick. And while Red didn’t have the energy to carry around the level of hate that Josh did towards Emma Cullen and the entire bio department, he didn’t like them much either. Mostly because Emma was a lot on a good day. He hadn’t thought much about Teddy even when he was right in front of Red.

Well, maybe he’d been a little attracted to him. Teddy is tall, like him, with long legs, and easy good looks. Red’s always liked that. But he was always by Emma’s side when Red saw him, and that had cancelled out any urge to act on it.

But Teddy on his own had turned out to be something more entirely. Red had run into him at a party Goody had dragged him to when Billy had been busy, and Red had been bored. He’d ended up going back to Teddy’s place with him, and maybe that would have been it, like it always was, if they hadn’t gotten along as well as they did. Teddy had expressed interest in Red’s idea about this side project too, and they’d started working together on it. 

And they’d kept sleeping together. 

It’s just been going somewhere Red didn’t expect it to. He likes being around Teddy. Thinks about him when he’s not around him. When he caught himself making excuses to go see him for reasons not related to just sex, Red knew he was screwed. They’re not together, for one. For two, Josh would make a big deal out of it, and while Red loves Josh, he also gets on Red’s nerves when he gets worked up about something. 

“Think that only works for boyfriends,” he says now. 

“How would you know? Have you ever had one, beyond Faraday?” That’s fair. Him and Josh have been pretty much attached since they were about ten, and Red’s family had moved in across from Josh and his mom. 

“Have you?” He doesn’t really want to think about that, just wants to know if he’s got competition before he starts this conversation and possibly fucks himself over. 

Teddy shakes his head. “A serious one? No. I’ve never had time, and even if I did, no one’s ever asked anyway. There was this one guy, back in freshman year, Markus? But he was kind of an asshole, and Emma hated his guts, so that didn’t last long.” 

That’s a hurdle he’s been considering. Teddy and Emma are close, and Emma doesn’t have any reasons to like him. “Gotta have her seal of approval?” 

“No,” Teddy refutes. “Contrary to popular belief, I am capable of making my own decisions.” He stretches his legs out a little, and now they’re touching more, Teddy’s knee against Red’s thigh. Red’s already slept with the guy, so it shouldn’t do anything, but it does. “But Emma is my best friend, and he called her a bitch, and meant it. He wasn’t worth my time.”

Even if Red doesn’t like her much, ‘bitch’ is pushing it. She’s hardheaded, but so is Josh, which is why they don’t get along, if anyone asked Red. He’d be more worried if they did. He’d probably never get another moment of fucking peace. 

For her part, she’s never said anything to Red specifically. Not that he remembers. It’s also possible she has, and he wasn’t listening. He tends to ignore her when her and Josh are arguing about shit. He ignores Josh too, to be fair. 

“Why are you asking?” Teddy is looking at the notebook again.

That’s probably a good opening, but Red’s got nothing to follow it up with. So he just shrugs. 

They keep working on the database, Red adding in new information after Teddy shows him what he’s got finalized on his own laptop. Concentrating on the work keeps his mind busy, for the most part, and off the other shit that’s bothering him. 

He gets a text from Josh at some point, but it’s just asking him when he’s coming back to the house. He doesn’t answer, solely to fuck with Josh. The only reason he’s asking is because he’s messing around with Vas, and Red is not making it easier on him. It’s funnier this way. 

“Faraday getting lonely?”

“He’ll live.” Red sits back from the desk, and cracks his neck, then stands up to stretch. Maybe that was a hint, though. “Want me to go?” Teddy’s place is just an efficiency apartment, in a divided house. There’s not a lot of space to get away from someone if you’re looking to be alone, and he’s been here for two hours now. 

He was kind of hoping things would go somewhere tonight, but that’s not always a sure thing. It says something that he’s cool with that. 

“No.” He’s got some of his stuff put away though, so he might just be being polite. “Red…” He trails off, and doesn’t pick it back up.

Red doesn’t know if he’s supposed to be the one to do it; if he is, he doesn’t know what to say either. He tries with, “What?”

Teddy bites his lip, his pen tapping on the notebook again. He sets it on the floor with the rest of his stuff, then gets up and goes to the little kitchenette, pouring himself some more coffee. Still doesn’t say anything, and now that’s making Red nervous. More nervous. 

“When you were asking about boyfriends, um, see, the thing is…”

Again, he stops, and doesn’t say anything. Red’s got a sinking feeling though. Teddy’s not stupid, and he can put two and two together. This is probably the part where he lets Red down nicely. Because he would be nice about it. 

It’s really quiet now. The awkward kind. Red doesn’t do awkward silences, not on his end at least. He’s a big fan of causing them, just to do it, but this is different. He doesn’t put himself out there, ever, because people are people and he’s himself. Now he’s done it, and gotten himself a great reminder about why he doesn’t. 

So he starts putting his stuff in his bag. “Gotta go.” 

“Red, don’t,” Teddy says, and Red stops. Because he can’t seem to keep himself under control when it comes to Teddy asking him for things. “Red, don’t, alright? It was nothing, I didn’t mean anything.” 

That doesn’t sound like Teddy trying to turn him down. Sounds like something else. Maybe. Either way, he looks upset, and that makes Red feel bad. He doesn’t want to upset Teddy. 

But Teddy’s back to not saying anything, just standing there, his hands clenched on the countertop behind him. So he’s not talking, and Red’s not talking, and the silence feels like it’s dragging. 

Fuck it, Red’s a grown man, and this is getting stupid. He’s not getting what he wants by not saying anything, and even if he still doesn’t get it, at least he’ll have tried. “I like you,” he says. Because that’s what it is. 

“I like you, too,” Teddy says, letting go of the counter. “A lot.” He steps away from the counter, slowly comes back over to Red. “I like you so much that I don’t actually care if Emma kills me for this. Which she wouldn’t really do, but she’ll definitely be mad. I really don’t care, though, because when I’m spending time with you, any time, I’m really happy, and I just want to keep spending time with you. Outside of this programming thing, and sex,” he stumbles over that, but adds, “I will say I really like that part.” He nods, like he’s confirming that. 

It shouldn’t be cute, and it shouldn’t do what it does to Red. “I like that part, too.” 

He likes the way Teddy is looking at him, too. Likes that a lot. “So,” Teddy says. “Do you think that maybe you like me enough to ignore how pissed off our very petty friends will be if we were actually a thing?”

“I’m pretty good at that.” He chooses not to tell Teddy that he usually just punches Josh when he’s getting on Red’s nerves, and vice versa. “And yeah.” He doesn’t need to clarify what he means by that, at least. Not with Teddy. Not for this conversation. 

Teddy is smiling at his feet, and that definitely does something for Red too. Does more when Teddy says, “Okay. Good,” and kisses Red, wrapping his arms around Red’s neck. “I mean it. I really like you.” 

Red likes hearing that, more than he wants to ever admit. He doesn’t need reassurance about much. That’s not who he is. But he _wants_ to hear it. “Why?” 

“Don’t fish for compliments,” Teddy mutters, kissing him again. “It’s not cute.” He doesn’t stop Red from getting his hand down the back of Teddy’s pajama pants though. 

“I’m not,” Red admits, pulling back so he can get his shirt off. 

He doesn’t expect Teddy to say, “Okay,” while they’re finding their way to the bed. “I really like how honest you are. I never have to guess with you. You always say what you mean, even when you know people don’t want to hear it.”

In Red’s lap, he’s heavy, and there, his hands on Red’s shoulders, fingers against Red’s spine, just how he likes to be touched, especially when Teddy’s kissing him. 

“I like your sense of humor,” he says, right when Red nips at his throat, wondering if it’s okay to leave marks now. He doesn’t want to do it on purpose, not where anyone can see. It would embarrass Teddy, he knows that, he just wants to know if it’s alright to not overthink it anymore. “You’re really funny. I thought you were so serious before I knew you, but you’re always making jokes, and you do it with a straight face, and,” he ends on a gasp, his fingers tight in Red’s hair, right when Red bites a little more at the skin below his collarbone. “You make me laugh, all the time.” 

He does. Not a lot of people know Red well enough to get his jokes. He’d made Teddy laugh that first night, at that party. Some offhand comment about a couple of guys out by the pool, and their Silicon Valley Bro wardrobes, when Red knew for a fact that between the three of them, they couldn’t program their way through a calendar app.

Most people would have just stared at him, or ignored him. Teddy had replied with, “Bet you a dollar they put butter in their coffee.” That had made Red laugh, not an easy thing in itself. 

Now, right now, he’s not laughing, but he’s smiling. Teddy is kissing him, working on the front of Red’s jeans at the same time. “I like how nice you are,” Teddy says. “Don’t make that face, you are nice. You do things for Professor Horne when he asks, even though I know you think he’s crazy.” There’s no ‘thinking’ about it, Horne is definitely off. But all he’s asked of Red is easy stuff, like helping him figure out why his classroom login wasn’t working, or fixing his printer. “You hold the elevator for people. No one does that.” 

“People do that,” Red argues. 

“ _You_ do that,” Teddy insists. “You do a lot of nice things, and you don’t do it so people will think you are. You just are. Part of that whole ‘honesty’ thing.” He kisses Red again, longer, long enough Red’s not thinking anymore, just enjoying this. Being touched by someone who knows him, knows what he likes, what he wants. Someone he wants to touch too. 

Sex with Teddy started to change from something he was doing just because he could, to something he wanted to do just with Teddy early on. That wasn’t one of the first signs that this could be different, could be something more, but it was one he’d paid attention to. He’s never been short on offers in college, but he’d stopped even considering them after this started up. Why bother when he already had someone? 

He’d started thinking of Teddy as his own ‘someone’, someone more than just a hook-up, so quickly into this. Other people just stopped even registering. He’d noticed that, too.

“I like this, too,” Teddy breathes. Red’s already in him, trying to be gentle, because he wasn’t the other night, and he wants this to last a little longer tonight anyway. Red kind of smirks at him, because yeah, he would hope Teddy likes this part. “I’m serious, don’t,” he says, clearly fighting not to laugh even as he rocks up on his knees, moving with Red. “You’re always good to me. A lot of guys aren’t.” 

“Maybe you’ve just been with assholes,” Red replies, kissing his jaw, before turning them over, Teddy going along with it and laughing now, wrapping a leg around Red’s waist. 

“I have a type,” Teddy says, like a confession. “Just took me awhile to get the right one.” He pulls Red down, so they can kiss again, stilling. “Kind of thought you might be the right one after that first time.” 

He likes knowing Teddy thought that. Because Red did too.

And he likes knowing he can actually fuck Teddy good enough he can’t hold a conversation anymore, just dig his fingers into Red’s back and tell Red everything he’s doing right. 

The neighbor against the adjoining wall likes it a whole lot less, but they wait fifteen minutes after they’re done before coming over and knocking on the door. Teddy’s wearing Red’s shirt when he answers it though, and Red likes that too. It’s a stupid thing, but it feels like a _boyfriend_ thing.

The neighbor apparently agrees. “Just because you landed the hot guy from programming doesn’t mean you need to rub it in my face, Q,” she’s saying. “No one cares what you do with your boyfriend at an _acceptable hour_. Little hint? There is no acceptable hour after six on a work night, I have two dissertations! Two!”

Red huffs at the ceiling. No one told her to do that, so that’s not their problem. 

“Sorry, Charlotte,” Teddy says. “I didn’t know you were home.”

“This is a two hundred year old house, Q! The walls are _thin_!” 

“I know. I’m sorry. We’ll keep it down.”

“I will contaminate all of your samples!” She promises. “Or something equally horrible! I’m dead serious!” 

She storms back to her apartment, and Red feels the wall against the bed shake from how hard she slams her door. On their side, Teddy leans against the door, and says, “I’m pretty sure she has me mixed up with someone else, but I wasn’t going to argue with her.”

Red nods in agreement. Not worth it. 

“Also, she’s kind of crazy.” He crawls back into the bed, pulling his legs in so he’s sitting cross-legged. “Like, really crazy.” 

He doesn’t really care about the crazy neighbor; he grabs the front of his shirt so he can tug Teddy close enough to kiss him. 

“Red?” Teddy asks, not moving away. “Would you be mad if we didn’t tell our own crazy friends about this? Not just yet, I mean.” That doesn’t sound like a bad idea, but Red wants to know why, so he waits. “I don’t like keeping secrets, but the thing is, I’m really happy right now. And our friends are going to be jerks about this, and kind of ruin the bubble.” 

That’s true, and Red nods. 

“Not forever, obviously. Just for a little bit.”

Again, Red nods. “Josh’ll only figure it out if someone shoves it in his face, anyway.” 

“And Emma would have to walk in on us before she’d even suspect.” He smiles at Red. “So, just us, and anybody else who works it out on their own? Just for now?”

“Yeah,” he agrees. “Not looking to start a fight with Josh right now. He’s got some shit going on.” He kisses Teddy again, because he can, and he wants to. “I’ll even let you put it on Instagram.”

**Author's Note:**

> Little in-between before the Christmas fic, because I'm not sleeping much and I can do whatever I want.


End file.
